Damon Lindelof Finalizing Deal With WBTV: “I'm Ready To Come Back To TV Full Time”

Exactly two years after Lost bowed out with one of the most talked-about finales in TV history, the series’ co-creator/co-showrunner Damon Lindelof is returning to the TV island after treading feature waters for the past two years. Lindelof is finalizing a rich three-year overall deal with Warner Bros. TV, which also is the TV home of Lindelof’s mentor-turned-frequent collaborator, Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams.

While he will consider developing projects with other writers down the road, “at this point I still look at myself as a writer,” Lindelof said. “This (deal) is about me creating my next show.” As for what that show would be, he would like to do a broadcast series again, and he definitely wants to try his hand in the cable arena. In terms of genres, after working on several back-to-back sci-fi features, most recently Prometheus and Abrams’ Star Trek sequel, “I think certainly film-wise, I’m spaced out, I think I’ve got the robot-spaceship future bug out of my system.” On the TV side, “I probably won’t be the guy who creates the next Mad Men or Breaking Bad, though I love both of these shows,” he said. “What I love about television is character-based storytelling, and I want to continue to explore fantastical way of doing it where characters live in a world that is a little skewed.” But don’t expect a new Lost from him. “I won’t be the one that would come up with the next Lost,” Lindelof said, adding that he has no interest in doing more shows with “wackadoo mythology.”

Lindelof started thinking about returning to television last year, about a year after Lost ended. “Movie life is nice and different, but l missed the energy and excitement of doing series television,” he said. At the time, he felt he didn’t have “stories to tell,” so he tabled the idea but revisited it this spring. Through Abrams, who moved to Warner Bros. TV in 2006, Lindelof had gotten to know WBTV president Peter Roth who had extended an open invitation to him to join the studio while he was still on Lost. The studio received a rave recommendation from Abrams who told Lindelof he was “the happiest he has ever been” at WBTV. “Based on my relationship with Peter, I felt a tremendous amount of camaraderie and safety there,” Lindelof said. Still, because of his strong ties with ABC and ABC Studios through Lost, when he became serious about pursuing a TV deal, Lindelof first sat down with executives from ABC Studios, including EVP Barry Jossen, whom Lindelof considers a personal friend. But, despite his “wonderful relationship” at ABC, “it was important that I would be able to sell to any network, and I wanted to be able to do cable series, and, based on their business model, I felt it would be enormously challenging for them to do that.”

With Prometheus hitting the screen and the Star Trek sequel wrapped, Lindelof, repped by CAA and attorney Bob Myman, is close to clearing his film plate. He is about to deliver his script 1952 to Disney, and if it gets greenlit, Lindelof will produce it while working on his development for WBTV. After that, it will be all television for the remainder of his WBTV deal. “I’m ready to come back to TV full-time,” he said.

54 Comments

damon is the best guy, the writer, the best showrunner out there. wbtv is lucky and smart to have landed such a prodigious talent. bravo to all.

João Paulo • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

I agree. Lindelof is really good writer.

Jon • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Clyde, you’re awesome!

truth to cliches • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Overrated

F.R. • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

I want to see more TV episodes written by Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse and directed by Jack Bender.

Former Lost fan • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

In an alternate “sideways” reality, his career is dead.

F.R. • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Also, I hope whatever he develops is a serialized show and not a case-of-the-week type of show.

Joshua • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

“damon is the best guy, the writer, the best showrunner out there. wbtv is lucky and smart to have landed such a prodigious talent. bravo to all.”

I second that…

Jason • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

DL is the nicest guy in the world and now he can be one of Peter Roth’s “boy team,” Abrams, Bruckheimer, Schwartz, Welles, Lorre, Berlanti… not much diversity (I think diversity is frowned upon at WBTV) but a lot of talent.

Steven Siebert • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Damon is one of the nicest and smartest creators who is all about character and always has an interesting eye for the less obvious actors. This is going to be exciting!

Javi • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

So, who will write Prometheus sequel? Only Spaiths?

This will be a MAJOR HIT. Mark my words.

Amazing work by Rapace, Fassbender and Scott. Imperfect, but awesome movie. Lindelof can be proud of his work.

Alex • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

I found out he finally finished that Ultimate Hulk verus Wolverine… finally. What’s it been, eight years? Six issues. It’s that hard to get six issues done?

HAHAHAHA!

Ben D. • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Simple: Ollie Klubershturf vs. the Nazis, the TV series.

John • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

This is the guy who turned “Lost” from an evergreen franchise into a TV show with a final season so unforgivably bad, it became a minor footnote in TV history. If there’s a flaw in “Prometheus,” based on early reviews, it’s the script.

WB seems about right for him, but I sure hope they have slashed his salary. This being Hollywood, they’re likely paying him more than ever.

Johnny • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Actually this is the guy who co-created the greatest piece of television fiction of all time.

Screenwriter • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Holy cow, he co-created GILLIGAN’S ISLAND?

Boy, the trivia I learn by visiting this site.
Who knew!

Gizmo • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

He ruined LOST with that half baked resolution. And his confident defiance that he made the right choices in the finale, despite wide-spread dissatisfaction and derision does not bode well for the audiences of anything he’s assigned. Am I still bitter about that final church scene? Hell yes

Joey C. • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Well, Gizmo, as they say “it’s the journey not the destination that matters.” Lost was an incredible journey that obviously brought you entertainment and enjoyment for six years so just overlook the actual finale….

Oh, and move on, it’s been two years.

Screenwriter • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

This is where I have to roll my eyes in a Rodney Dangerfield way. Sorry, but the whole “It’s the journey, not the destination that matters” argument is LAME. Simply because if the destination wasn’t THAT important, then why would you bother making the journey in the first place?

Bottom line: from interviews and clips that I’ve seen, Lindelof seems like a nice enough guy, so I’ll wish him well on landing a big new deal and all that. Good for him.

ON THE OTHER HAND, there’s NO denying that LOST started with a bang and had some great episodes along the way that raised the bar…and then they SERIOUSLY dropped the ball in the end.

Translation: if I ran into Lindelof, I’d have no problem congratulating him on his deal and wishing him well. And then I’d poke his chest and say “Buddy, you also owe me a few years of my life back for making me sit through a show that you SAID had it’s ending planned from the very start, that you SAID was a CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED MYSTERY and we all had to trust you…that all our questions would be answered…and the REAL truth is you guys were WINGING IT every step of the way. Because that finale answered NOTHING and it was total CRAP. So thanks alot for wasting my time, pal!”

Twitchy • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

He seems like a self-absorbed arrogant prat to me. But whatever. We can agree that the finale sucked, anyway.

Hey, Joey, you saying that to the people who are still gushing about the show, or do you think there’s only a statute of limitations on talking about how awful it was? Two years or twenty, nothing will change the fact that the finale was a huge letdown.

Mar • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

That’s a lovely piece of advice, Joey. I mean that. And while the journey does trump the destination (i.e., Season 6) it is hard to swallow. Like a gourmet meal – say a five course delight! – that ends with a dessert that gives most everyone food poisoning. It changes experience. It does. You’ll always remember that meal, but mostly for that dessert. Tis sad but true.

Anyway I have mad love for LOST. Always.

Johnny • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

What because YOU didnt get it?? YES!

ShnDvd • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Cripes, man… just move on. He ruined the show? Seriously? It was HIS show. If it wouldn’t have been for him, you probably wouldn’t have LOST. Didn’t resolve the storyline the way you wanted so you get to crap all over the guy and his talent? I’m glad you have the talent and foresight to write a massive show like LOST.

John Locke • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Lost was brilliant until the final season then they destroyed it with their crazy insane ending. There were a thousand ways to end the show all of them better than what they came up with. And the thousand ways were all posted on various Lost websites by fans who won’t ever be millionaire writers like Damon is. I think he betrayed all the true Lost fans with that bullshit ending. He’s also an egomaniac as shown by his trying to take all the credit for Prometheus he loves the spotlight he’s obsessed with his brand image he thinks he’s a master of Twitter and everything else. He needs to learn the meaning of modesty and how to be humble with all his success.

Andy • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

They never had an endgame for Lost. The pilot is all setup. It didn’t matter if they ended it after two seasons or twelve, the disappointment would have been the same.

scifi_fan • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Are we still arguing about this? I figured around season four that they were piling mysteries so high, they’d never get out from under that mountain of nonsense with any kind of graceful exit.

It was a foregone conclusion that whatever ending they came up with, it would be a disaster, the only question was one of degree. The ending worked emotionally but logically was a mess. That’s as good as we could have hoped. It was a fun ride, appreciate it for what it was.

firebrand • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

I will say nice things about Damon Lindelof when he comes out and apologizes for the 6-year running abomination that was called “Lost.” Then and ONLY then.

H • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Do you hate EVERYTHING? Every time i see your comments it’s always something negative.

Desmond • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Whats ironic is that he claims that he loves the “character-based storytelling” of TV, yet Lost was at its worst in the latter half of the series when he and the show got AWAY from character-driven stories and delved into the mythology/genre fluff.

To me, it’s inconceivable to think of any other series burn through as much goodwill in one season as Lost did in that last season. By season 3 they already stopped caring about fleshing out the incumbent characters, and instead inserted flat and shallow new ones. By the series end, there was no one left to care about.

Bring back LOST • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Bring LOST back nothing else compares. Forget the “Bitters” Damon, still after 2 years don’t get it because they are lazy.

Twitchy • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

We got it just fine. And it’s hard not to be bitter when a showrunner hands you a bucket of piss and tells you it’s lemonade. LOL

jack • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

I cant wait for Damon Lindelof’s work and yeah I agree that wbtv is the best avenue for writers to excel.
Also, can’t wait for his batman comics.

Anonymous • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

Why would they still work with him? He destroyed what could have been one of the most amazing TV series ever with bad plotting and one of the worst (probably THE worst) endings ever. I hope he never gets to do another series again. And ABC could have made so much more money out of this…

I love seeing the “Lost” fans coming on board saying it would have been better if Lindelof ended the show using ideas from internet message boards. No matter what they did to end that show, people would have been bitching about it.

Sareeta • on Jun 1, 2012 6:21 pm

I’m disappointed that he doesn’t want to do the next Lost. That series set such a high standard that it is sad to think people are giving up on trying to surpass it. Note: there is a difference between copying that series and surpassing it.

Anyway, I am a big fan of Lost and unless it is a medical, legal, or cop procedural, I will probably consider any project he is attached to as writer.